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The tropical storm Alberto, the first of the Hurricane season This year, it made landfall this Thursday in northern Mexico, leaving, in addition to the havoc, four dead.
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The phenomenon, which would have been downgraded to a tropical depression after making landfall, caused intense rainfall on Wednesday, and in the early hours of this Thursday, June 20, made landfall near the city of Tampico, state of Tamaulipas, with maximum sustained winds of 55 km per hour (km/h).
The National Water Commission (Conagua, state) reported that the phenomenon is also forecast to still cause heavy rains in Nuevo León and other states such as Coahuila, Puebla, San Luis Potosí and Veracruz.
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Electric shocks and hailstorms are also expected, which will increase the risk of landslides, river overflows and flooding, Conagua added.
But Mexico is not the only country alert to the passing of this depression. The Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (Ideam) is also monitoring the trajectory of the phenomenon, which could have effects in Colombia.
The institute indicated that, although the tropical depression It does not represent a direct impact on Colombian territory, but it could lead to an increase in rainfall in the coming days.
Alberto “is moving towards the west and does not represent a direct impact on the territory of Colombia. However, could affect the increase in rainfall in the northwest of the country. “We continue to do constant monitoring,” indicated Ideam.
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In this sense, the entity specified that the departments that would experience an increase in rainfall are Córdoba, Sucre, Bolívar, Chocó and Antioquia, whose metropolitan area has experienced several episodes of rain with strong gusts of wind this week.
Ideam had already warned, at the end of May, that The upcoming Atlantic hurricane season will be “unprecedented.”
“It is going to be a fairly strong season that could break historical records for the number of cyclones, as well as their intensity,” said the director of the entity, Ghisliane Echeverry.
The director predicts that the phenomena will be closer to the Colombian coast, so the archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina; and La Guajira, are the most exposed departments.
“Regardless of the distance they have, yes or yes they are going to cause rain on the Caribbean coast, and they can cause extreme events. These events begin as tropical waves, they can become depressions, storms or hurricanes, depending on the speed they acquire,” Echeverry added.
About the number of events expected during the hurricane season, Ideam estimates that Colombia will feel 25 storms and 13 of them could become hurricanes. Of them, in turn, 7 could have greater force.
He also maintained that “the season is expected to last until November and will be more intense in September and October.”
